Lightroom: Search filters do not see Nikon's non-cpu metadata

I use some non-cpu lenses on my Nikon D700 and use the camera settings to tell the camera what lens it is using for metering and meta data.

In Lightroom library-> EXIF Metadata see the the focal length but when I use the library filter, the lens displays as 0.0 mm f/0.0. So Lightroom filters don't find/see the Non CPU lenses focal length. Window Explorer Properties show the correct information.

The problem is that the Nikon camera does not write the appropriate metadata for the non-CPU lenses.

When I contacted Nikon about this they told me it was a feature (request) and not a bug.

What I had to do was create a windows .NET utility that I use to drive ExifTools, which edits all the lens meta data so it is correctly registered. I usually do this before I import my DNG/NEF files into Light oom. Although I think Lightroom might be smart enough to ask you if it should update its catalog once you change your image file meta data. (It did this in the very small test I ran.)